Phil Stahl

H. Philip Stahl, Ph. D.

Area of Expertise

Optical Testing, Optical Engineering

Biography

Dr. H. Philip Stahl, Senior Optical Physicist at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, is the JWST Optical Components Technology Lead. Additionally, Dr. Stahl is supporting various future mission studies and strategic planning activities. Prior to joining NASA, Dr. Stahl was a Senior Optical Engineer at Raytheon Danbury (formerly Hughes Danbury Optical Systems). As President of Stahl Optical Systems, he worked on several related NASA projects. He was an Assistant Professor of Physics and Applied Optics at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, the Optical Products Manager and the Senior Optical Systems Engineer at the Breault Research Organization. Prior to that, he worked at Perkin-Elmer, Hughes Aircraft, and Wright-Patterson AFB. He was also a Faculty Fellow at NASA Lewis Research Center. Dr. Stahl is a leading authority in optical metrology and phase-measuring interferometry. Many of the world's largest telescopes have been fabricated with the aid of his high-speed and infrared phase-measuring interferometers. He is a Fellow of SPIE and a member of OSA. He earned his PhD in Optical Science at the University of Arizona Optical Sciences Center in 1985.

Lecture Title(s)

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Science and Mirror Fabrication StatusIn 2013, NASA plans to launch the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to the L2 orbit, 1.5 Million Km from Earth. With a 6.5m diameter mirror, JWST is a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope with 5 times the collecting aperture. As part of NASA's Origins Program, the ten year observing mission will search for the 'first light' of the universe. JWST will provide astronomers with unparalleled light collection, sensitivity in mid-range IR, and spatial resolution. Mirror technology is critical to the system's success. The hard part is solving the problem of how to launch a 6m, 600 kg, mirror into space on a 5m diameter rocket. In addition, high performance will be expected at operating temperatures of 50K. This presentation will review the mirror requirements and development efforts, discuss the context details of the mission, and summarize the current status of the telescope.

50 years of space mirrors at NASA

*Please allow a 90 day notice of interest if inviting from a chapter based outside of the USA and a 60 day notice of interest if inviting from a USA-based chapter.*

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